Content and Media Rights Policy

1.What this covers#

This policy answers one question in detail: when someone posts content on Forkfluence, who else can use it, where, and for how long?

It applies to everyone who posts through the Service — creators, restaurants, and diners — and it forms part of the Terms of Service, the Merchant Terms, and the Creator Terms.

The short version, and the principle everything below follows from:

Neither side owns the other's content. Posting on Forkfluence opens it for mutual use.

A creator who films a restaurant's food does not lose ownership of that video, and the restaurant does not acquire it. What each gets is the right to use it. That right is described in section 3, and how long it lasts is in section 4 — which is the question most people are actually asking.

2.You own what you post#

You keep ownership of your content. Creators own their photos, videos, and captions. Restaurants own their logos, banners, and menu photography. Forkfluence claims no ownership of any of it and does not ask you to assign your copyright.

You do grant licenses — which is a different thing. A license is permission to use something. It does not transfer ownership, it does not stop you licensing the same content to anyone else, and it does not stop you using your own work however you like.

You are responsible for having the rights to what you post: the footage, the music, and the consent of anyone identifiable in it.

3.The mutual license#

When you post content through the Service, or post content elsewhere that tags a restaurant on Forkfluence and links your Forkfluence code, you grant a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to:

• Forkfluence, and
• the restaurant your content tags

to host, store, reproduce, distribute, publicly display and perform, repost, and edit for format that content, in connection with the Service, with that restaurant's business, and with promoting either — including in paid advertising (see section 5).

The same runs the other way. Content a restaurant posts through the Service may be reused by Forkfluence and by creators who are tagged in or featured by it, on the same terms. That reciprocity is the point: it is why neither party has to negotiate for the other's work.

"Edit for format" means cropping, resizing, trimming length, adjusting for a platform's aspect ratio, adding captions or subtitles, and applying the attribution described in section 6. It does not mean re-editing your content so it says something you did not say. See section 7.

Sublicensable is there for a narrow, practical reason: we need to be able to pass content to the platforms it is published on — Instagram, TikTok, an ad network — because their own terms require it. It is not permission for us to sell your work on. Section 7 says so explicitly.

4.How long the license lasts#

This is the question restaurants and creators ask most, so here is a direct answer.

The license on any individual piece of content is perpetual from the moment it is posted. It does not expire on a timer, and it does not have to be renewed.

But it is revocable going forward. Leaving Forkfluence, ending a creator partnership, or deleting a post stops new content from being licensed and stops new uses of existing content from starting. It does not reach backwards.

Concretely, after you leave or delete a post:

We chose this shape deliberately rather than the two easier alternatives. A licence that expired on a fixed term would mean tracking an expiry date for every asset and pulling live ads when one lapsed, which nobody could administer honestly. A licence that was simply irrevocable forever would give the platform more than it needs. This sits between them: the platform and the restaurant can invest in a campaign without it evaporating, and you can stop the relationship going further whenever you want.

Ending an advertising campaign early. If you want a live ad using your content taken down sooner than its natural end, ask us at support@forkfluence.com. We will make reasonable efforts to stop it, and we will always do so where the content has become inaccurate or where continuing would misrepresent you.

5.Use in advertising#

The license in section 3 includes paid advertising. Content you post may appear in:

• Forkfluence's own organic social posts, website, and app
• Forkfluence's paid advertising, including on Meta platforms, TikTok, and search and display networks
• The tagged restaurant's organic social posts and its own paid advertising
• Email and printed marketing for the Service or for that restaurant

This is the part most worth understanding before you post. Content that is on Forkfluence is content that may be spent money on to promote — which is generally good for a creator, because it puts your work and your handle in front of an audience you did not have to buy. But it is a real consequence and you should agree to it knowingly.

Advertising using your content will carry attribution under section 6 wherever the format allows it.

6.Attribution and watermarks#

We credit creators. Where a format allows it, content redistributed by Forkfluence carries the creator's handle or display name.

Watermarking. We may apply a Forkfluence watermark, together with the creator's handle, to video and images we redistribute — in the manner platforms like Instagram and TikTok mark downloaded video. The purpose is twofold: it shows where the content came from, and it keeps your name attached to your work as it travels.

You may not remove or obscure attribution or watermarking that Forkfluence has applied when you reuse content under this policy. Restaurants reusing creator content must keep the creator's attribution intact.

If your handle changes, tell us and we will update attribution on content we control going forward.

7.What we will not do#

The license in section 3 is broad, so these limits are firm. Forkfluence will not:

• Sell or license your content to a third party as a product, or supply it to a stock library or content marketplace
• Use your content to imply you endorse something you did not — a restaurant you never covered, a product you never tried, a claim you never made
• Use your likeness, name, or voice outside the Forkfluence and tagged-restaurant context described in this policy
• Edit your content so it changes its meaning — reversing an opinion, cutting a qualification, or making a criticism read as praise
• Use content you posted about one restaurant to advertise a different restaurant
• Use your content to train machine learning models, our own or anyone else's
• Keep using content after we know it has become misleading — for instance, promoting a dish or price that no longer exists

The same limits bind restaurants reusing creator content, and creators reusing restaurant content.

8.Restaurant-supplied media#

Restaurants upload logos, banner images, menu-item photographs, and descriptive copy.

By uploading, a restaurant warrants that it holds the rights to all of it — including any photography it commissioned, any stock imagery it licensed, and any font or design element it used. Commissioning a photograph does not always transfer copyright; check your photographer's contract before uploading.

Restaurant-supplied media is licensed to Forkfluence on the terms in section 3, and may be reused by creators promoting that restaurant.

Menu photography must depict the actual item as served. Do not use stock imagery of a dish you do not sell, or a photograph of a materially different portion or preparation.

9.Uploaded media is publicly readable#

Please read this before uploading anything.

Images and video uploaded through the Service are stored in a publicly readable location. Anyone who has the file's URL can open it — whether or not they have a Forkfluence account, whether or not the post is still visible in the app, and whether or not your profile is active.

This is how images load quickly across the Service, and it is standard for platforms that serve media at scale. But it has a real consequence: there is no such thing as a private upload here. Do not upload anything you would not be comfortable being public, including images with identifying details in the background.

Location metadata is stripped from photos uploaded through the mobile app, as described in the Privacy Policy.

10.Deleting content#

You can delete your posts at any time. When you do, the post is removed from the Service and stops being shown.

Two honest caveats:

• Deletion is not instant erasure. The underlying record and file are removed on our next purge cycle rather than the moment you tap delete, and cached copies may persist briefly.
• Deletion does not unwind existing uses. Copies already reposted by a restaurant, and advertising already running, continue under section 4. If you need a live use stopped sooner, ask us — see section 4.

If you want your content gone everywhere rather than just from the Service, email support@forkfluence.com and tell us what you want removed. We will do what we reasonably can and will tell you honestly what we cannot reach.

11.Takedowns and disputes#

If you think content is being misused — yours used in a way this policy does not permit, or content about you that should not be up — email support@forkfluence.com with a link to the content and what is wrong with it. We aim to acknowledge within 2 business days and to resolve within 10.

If a restaurant and a creator disagree about reuse of content, either may ask us to help informally. We may decline, and anything we do is a courtesy, not a determination of anyone's legal rights.

We may remove content ourselves where it breaches this policy, the Terms of Service, or the law, or where a rights holder asks us to.

12.Copyright and DMCA#

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a DMCA notice as described in the Terms of Service. That section also explains how to file a counter-notice if your content was removed in error.

We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe.

13.Changes to this policy#

We may update this policy. The version and date at the top of this page identify the current version.

For material changes we will give at least 30 days' notice to the email on your account.

A change to this policy does not retroactively broaden the license on content you already posted. Content is licensed on the terms in force when it was posted. If we ever want wider rights over existing content, we will ask you.

14.Contact#

Questions about this policy, a takedown request, or a use you are unsure about: